fate. -- So it might be with some monarch of the forest
that has vanquished his foes in fair fight, and then falls
into some cowardly trap in the night-time.

A time of peril on the killing-beds was when a steer
broke loose. Sometimes, in the haste of speeding-up,
they would dump one of the animals out on the floor
before it was fully stunned, and it would get upon its feet
and run amuck. Then there would be a yell of warning
-- the men would drop everything and dash for the
nearest pillar, slipping here and there on the floor, and
tumbling over each other. This was bad enough in the
summer, when a man could see; in winter-time it was
enough to make your hair stand up, for the room would
be so full of steam that you could not make anything out
five feet in front of you. To be sure, the steer was gen~
erally blind and frantic, and not especially bent on hurting
any one; but think of the chances of running upon a
knife, while nearly every man had one in his hand!
And then, to cap the climax, the floor-boss would come
rushing up with a rifle and begin blazing away!

It was in one of these melees that Jurgis fell into his
trap. That is the only word to describe it; it was so
cruel, and so utterly not to be foreseen. At first he
hardly noticed it, it was such a slight accident -- simply
that in leaping out of the way he turned his ankle.
There was a twinge of pain, but Jurgis was used to pain,
and did not coddle himself. When he came to walk
home, however, he realized that it was hurting him a great
deal; and in the morning his ankle was swollen out
nearly double its size, and he could not get his foot into
his shoe. Still, even then, he did nothing more than
swear a little, and wrapped his foot in old rags, and hob~
bled out to take the car. It chanced to be a rush day at
Durham's, and all the long morning he limped about with
his aching foot; by noon-time the pain was so great that
it made him faint, and after a couple of hours in the after~
noon he was fairly beaten, and had to tell the boss.
They sent for the company doctor, and he examined the
foot and told Jurgis to go home to bed, adding that he

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